In a scrimmage a week before the opening game of his senior season in high school, St. Francis DeSales running back Paul Haynes took a handoff, darted through the line, made a sharp cut—and blew out his knee.

It was 1986 in Columbus, Ohio, where Haynes dreamed of—what else?—playing for the Buckeyes. The injury ended any chance of that happening; he went on to play defensive back at Kent State. But you know what?

“I probably wasn’t good enough to play at Ohio State anyway,” Haynes said in a conversation with Sporting News during his first days as a head coach, at his alma mater.

You want a reason to like this guy right off the bat? He knows he’s not perfect and that he doesn’t have all the answers. As he puts it: “Look, I’m just a realist.”

Haynes was part of the mess that was Arkansas football in 2012. In his only season in Fayetteville as defensive coordinator, the Razorbacks ranked 12th in the SEC in total D. Worse for Haynes, given his background as a player and as a defensive backs coach (including a six-season run working for Jim Tressel at Ohio State), the team ranked dead last in the SEC—and 113th nationally—against the pass.

It didn’t reflect very positively on the guy who, after Bobby Petrino was fired, was believed by many to be the leading in-house candidate for the job that eventually went to John L. Smith.

“It was a challenging season,” Haynes said, “but I think it made me a better coach.”

In many respects, Haynes has found a cushy landing spot. At 43, he’s back to his home away from home. He’ll have to earn about $100,000 in incentives to equal the $475,000 salary he made at Arkansas, but Haynes isn’t complaining.

“It’s an awesome feeling, an awesome experience for me,” he said. “It was always a dream of mine to come back here as head coach.”

It was a dream he hoped would come following the 2010 season, but Kent State elected to offer the job to fellow Ohio State assistant Darrell Hazell. Did it sting? Sure it did. But the realist in Haynes accepted the decision.

“I needed that next year, really, to go through that thing at Ohio State and to go through that year at Arkansas. Once that year was over at Arkansas, I knew I was ready to be a head coach.”

With all Haynes experienced over grueling seasons following the dismissals of Jim Tressel and Petrino, he’d seem to be prepared for anything he might face at Kent State.

But this will be an extreme challenge, too. If Southern Miss could go from 11-2 under Larry Fedora in 2011 to 0-12 under Ellis Johnson in 2012, then certainly it’s no given Kent State will continue to have success.

The Golden Flashes were 11-3 in 2012, but it was the program’s first winning record since 2001 (and first time ever with double-digit victories). And—rather incredibly, given college football’s ever-expanding bowl lineup—the season ended with the school’s first bowl appearance in 40 years.

“Darrell and his staff did a great job because they got these players to believe,” Haynes said. “When you get them to believe they can win, that’s half the battle.”